Classico thriller: scorre bene, qualche dato scientifico interessante.
Nulla di speciale

I'm late to the game as far as the Kay Scarpetta series is concerned. Like a lot of books I read, I stumbled into this series on my Libby app at some point in 2021. I was looking for a good long suspense series. Little did I know how much I'd come to love the character cast that make up the core of these books. I dare to say that I absolutely love Marino! He's such a softie packed into gruff packaging. I love how he's always there to look out for Kay even when she doesn't want him to be there. The character writing is one of the main things that keeps me coming back to this series.

The book opens with Dr. Scarpetta house-sitting for a colleague who has gone to London because of a death in the family. She gets a mysterious phone call about a mysterious death at a Naval shipyard. From here the plot thickens and picks up throughout the remainder of the book. I wouldn't say there were any dull points in the storyline. In fact, I particularly love how Cornwell can throw a total curveball into the story which I know will be relevant at some point, I just can't figure out how. It seriously makes my gears turn trying to think through all the angles to figure it out before it's solved in the book!

My only little issue with this book is how Dr. Scarpetta always has a reason to be where that the action is taking place. No medical examiner is ever needed in the heart of the mystery throughout the entire investigation. But, as I'm well aware, if she didn't need to be everywhere, she wouldn't be Kay Scarpetta and we wouldn't have these fun novels to read.

I'm usually such a fan of the Scarpetta series but this one just fell short for me.

The beginning started well and there were promises of darkness and disturbing characters but then it seemed to lose its way.

Starting like a Horror it developed into a James Bond.

While Cornwell's writing is excellent as always, the action wasn't consistent, most secondary characters came and left without explanation and the darkness that often surrounds the Scarpetta investigations was minimal.

I'm not sure if Cornwell is moving in a new direction with this one (will see in the next book), but I found myself having to persevere during some points because it strayed quite a bit from our expectations of Scarpetta.

6.5/10 (3 Stars)

Η αλήθεια είναι πως περίμενα να αναπτύξω μια πολύ καλύτερη σχέση με την Κέυ Σκαρπέττα. Μετά από τρία βιβλία,όμως,μάλλον ακόμα γνωριζόμαστε και προσπαθούμε να βρούμε κοινούς κώδικες. Το βιβλίο αυτό το βρήκα σχετικά αδιάφορο,παρόλο που το θέμα του αρχικά φάνταζε ενδιαφέρον.

Ειδικά η συμπεριφορά της Σκαρπέττα σε ό,τι έχει να κάνει με την ανιψιά της έχει αρχίσει να μου σπάει τα νεύρα. Πρώτον,η νεαρά δεν είναι πλέον νεαρά,είναι ολόκληρη γυναίκα. Δεύτερον,αυτή η υπερπροστασία που επιδεικνύει συνεχώς απέναντί της καταντά εκνευριστική τόσο για την ανιψιά,όσο και για μένα. Στο FBI είναι κυρά μου,και σε νευραλγικό πόστο μάλιστα. Τι θες,να τη βάλουν στη γυάλα μην την πλησιάσει κανένας και την κάνει ντα; Πραγματικά κάθε φορά που έχουν κοινή σκηνή αυτές οι δύο αυτόματα σφίγγομαι και ενδόμυχα σκέφτομαι πόσο θα νευριάσω πάλι.
Επίσης,και ο χαρακτήρας της Σκαρπέττα είναι ώρες ώρες ανυπόφορος. Εννοείται πως δεν παριστάνει ούτε η ίδια πως είναι ο καλυτερότερος άνθρωπος του κόσμου ή ο φωτεινός παντογνώστης,όμως μερικές φορές η συμπεριφορά της ή ο τρόπος σκέψης της για τους άλλους με εκνευρίζει επίσης. Δεν μπορεί να φταίνε πάντα οι άλλοι για προσωπικά ή επαγγελματικά ζητήματα. Δεν μπορεί να θέλει να επεμβαίνει στις ζωές όλων και να μη δέχεται μύγα στο σπαθί της για τη δική της. Δεν μπορεί να κρατάει μούτρα ή να φέρεται με ψυχρότητα στον άλλον,επειδή έχει κάτι προσωπικό μαζί του. Ειδικά όταν βρίσκεται στη μέση μιας υπόθεσης. ΟΚ,το καταλαβαίνω πως αυτά τα συναισθήματα είναι ανθρώπινα,όμως μάλλον η Κέυ Σκαρπέττα είναι ένας χαρακτήρας που δεν θα ήθελα στον δικό μου κοινωνικό κύκλο τελικά. Δεν ταιριάζουν τα χνώτα μας.

Παρ' όλα αυτά,μιας και για το 2018 ο στόχος μου είναι "διαβάζω με τη σειρά όλα τα βιβλία του εκάστοτε συγγραφέα που έχω",θα διαβάσω και τα υπόλοιπά της,αν και δεν νομίζω να αλλάξω πια και τόσο την άποψη που έχω ήδη σχηματίσει.

I give up! I picked up about 50 books on a sale a couple of weeks ago and this was the first book I chose to read and it proved to be a bad start. I simply don't care about Kay Scarpetta, her colleagues, the murderers or the victims.

The book is full of technical stuff, sometimes purposely inserted. Does the ordinary public even care about the make of guns or what the occipital bone is or how exactly a naval boat operates? I found myself skipping these parts and soon enough got hopelessly lost because among the endless technical jargon was some minor plot development.

There is zero character development and I came away with the feeling that they were all zombies in the pay of the American government, hired to solve crimes. I think the author is so taken with trying to impress readers with her research that she forgot to show her writing skills.

I would not recommend this book to anyone unless this kind of stuff interests you: "Land impressions are point oh-seven-four. Groove impressions are point one-five-three. I'm going to enter that into the GRC. Now let's determine the calibre." And then a long discussion on the calibre follows. And so on. No, just no.

n  SPOILERS!!!n

2/4 - This took me more nights to finish than I expected, I thought I'd get it done in two nights of reading, unfortunately sleep decided to kidnap me a few nights in a row and I just couldn't manage as many pages as I was expecting to. I'm starting to find the 'kill Scarpetta's staff' theme a little tedious, working for her is becoming a dangerous occupation. I remembered the fact that among all of Scarpetta's other accomplishments she's also a certified scuba diver and I remembered that Lucy and her robot dog saved the day, what I didn't remember was the uranium-stealing terrorist angle of the story. That's possibly because it was only mentioned near the end of the book and that end felt rushed. I felt like this could have been 50 pages longer in order so that the climax didn't end up feeling like an anticlimactic after-thought, rather than the big reveal it should have been.

This is the last book in my mini Scarpetta marathon, for the moment at least. If I want to complete my challenges for the year (POPSUGAR and the one I set to read as many of the books I already own as possible) I have other books I need to get on with, I can't spend the rest of the year just reading Scarpetta. Well, I probably could but I don't think it's recommended with Cornwell as you begin to notice the flaws too easily if you read her books one after another till the end, plus I wouldn't feel like I've accomplished something I've set out to do the way I will if I finish this year's POPSUGAR list.

The thing to remember when reading fiction; latitude is a given. The more flawed a character is the more threads of a storyline are available. Dr. Scarpetta is a thriving type A personality who works in a man's world. Her impressions are going to be different and thankfully she is emotional. I have said and continue to think she's an extension of what Patricia Cornwell is like and I find that continually compelling. She gets involved in multiple things in this book just like the novels that have preceded it; The introduction of Lucy's personal life and her sexuality is wonderful. Everyone seems to think she would never be allowed to be an FBI agent but I'm not so sure; there are plenty of CIA/FBI agents who have a very messy private life. Genre fiction is supposed to introduce a pattern and may have a surprise twist at the end. A side note; if you read the introduction Cornwell states how uncomfortable she was with diving and never fully embraced it. Let's give Cornwell some credit in her 7th novel as she uses the gift fiction writers are known for; imagination.

So much for the books getting better, I guess I spoke too soon! In this book Dr. KS is filling in for an out of town medical examiner. Then she's scuba diving (because she's certified because Dr. K can do anything), then her niece is crying and drinking and crying and what? And then the Libyan’s kill Doc Brown to steal his plutonium so Marty McFly takes off with the time machine thanks to the flux capacitor... Oh wait.. well, it was something like that.

It was like she took everything that was sort of timely at the moment she was writing- middle east, nuclear weapons and David Koresh and tossed it all in a blender and tried to make a plot out of it. The plot needed a ton of explaining and at the end it was like she realized that so she just stopped writing to save herself the trouble. Because there is no other reason for that abrupt ending.

The characters are going downhill fast. Seriously- Lucy is a mess and there is no way she passed any sort of psych eval to get into the FBI. I mean I've been saying it for a while, she is a little crazy-cakes. Why would the government let her carry a gun? Kay is the most unsympathetic character ever. I'm over her affair and I'm really over Benton. The best character the series has is Marino, and that doesn't say much. He has a mystery son, and a heartbreaking love for Kay (that she shits on whenever possible) and he is trying to kill himself with food and cigarettes to get out of this series. I can't say I blame him...

This started out promisingly enough--Kay Scarpetta is a solid protagonist and the seemingly disconnected events that command her attention are intriguing. But as we get into nuclear terrorism, stolen uranium, a loony death cult and more, it galumphs out of control. The continuing characters in Scarpetta's life also weave into this story not too believably. And while the forensic and toxological details might be interesting to some, they seemed unnecessary to me.

I thought this book started out really well. It got me hooked and reminded me how much I used to love reading this series. And then it just went downhill. For starters, I’m over her niece Lucy and her tortured, genius soul. Maybe if Kay would stop treating her like she’s five years old and trying to control her every move she could put her big girl panties on and get over it.

My other issue is how involved do medical examiners usually get in their cases? She was basically in the Situation Room giving out orders. Really? Seems like there would be MANY more qualified people running the show. I would have only given the book one star but the first 3/4 of it was actually really good.

I’m not going to let this book stop me from reading the rest of the series, but if the next couple are like this one, I’m tapping out.

Murder and treason... Are there members of law enforcement and military involved? What does depleted uranium have to do with it? Find out how Dr Scarpetta and her friends in law enforcement and FBI figure out the mystery and save Virginia.

This novel expanded internationally. The content was there, but it wasn't as good as previous in the series. For me, it seemed like a lot of info, but didn't flow as smoothly as I would have liked.

I am an incongruous Patricia Cornwell fan. A medical examiner who occasionally describes autopsies, asks for thicker skin than my most frequent reading choices. Standard mystery is my milieu, literally in the middle. The family feel of Kay Scarpetta’s inner sanctum: computer-pro niece Lucy, chief of police friend Pete, and FBI director boyfriend Benton and the caring, professional leadership of her morgue staff, allow familiarity to build in their off-putting job field. Crime is my least favourite mystery device, so the unexplained circumstances of a drowned journalist in scuba gear, propelling the major part of “Cause Of Death”, generated a puzzler closer to the intrigue I like better. Ted Eddings’ interest in a decommissioned navy wharf was odd. Base personnel forcing Kay to exert her authority to investigate was unsettling and the extended absence of the morgue manager she was replacing in that town, was puzzling.

The novel shifted to Ted’s interest in a cult and police-grade weapons at his home. A whole other tone enters, when the out-of-town morgue assistant is murdered on his way to Kay’s office. It matches the intrigue at the wharf. There is recognisance of explosives, which unnerve Pete. Finally, Lucy’s investigation of an FBI internet infiltration intersected with Kay’s case, which I found implausible.

In the late chapters, a joint law enforcement sting of a terrorist holdup, was a stretch too far in a novel already saturated with a variety of angles. It changed the pace of the novel from mystery suspense, to a police action thriller. It was far less compelling and didn’t belong to the story I started. The weakest point is that Ted’s girlfriend could reveal a lot, if Kay pressed his Mother to name her. This is my least favourite case but I am undaunted about enjoying the series overall.